HIGHLY COLLECTIBLE HARD TO FIND REVEU MILITARY WWI MEN'S WRISTWATCH (SOLD)

BRAND/JENAMA: AUTHENTIC VINTAGE REVUE THOMMEN MILITARY GENTS WRISTWATCH

MADE IN/BUATAN: SWISS

CIRCA/TAHUN: 1930's

MODEL: MILITARY

CRYSTAL/CERMIN: MINERAL

MOVEMENT/ENJIN: Swiss Made, mechanical manual winding 15 Jewels

DIAL COLOR: MILITARY BLACK

FUNCTION/FUNGSI: MILITARY

HANDS/JARUM: LUMINOUS SILVER TONE

MARKERS/TANDA WAKTU: LUMINOUS WHITE MILITARY ARABIC WITH MILITARY PUTIH ARABIKA

CASING : SOLID STAINLESS STEEL CASE

BEZEL : STAINLESS STEEL

HIDDEN LUGS: 12mm

MEASUREMENT/UKURAN: ROUND CASE 49mm DIAMETER INCLUDING CROWN and 51mm LUG TO LUG

DITANDA/ENGARVED BACK CASING: -

CROWN: ORIGINAL SS CROWN

STRAP/TALI: GENUINE BLACK LEATHER BAND

SIZE STRAP/SAIZ TALI: 8.5"

WORKING AND KEEPING TIME

PRICE/HARGA : USD600 (NEGOTIABLE)

BRIEF HISTORY OF REVUE THOMMEN WATCHES:

After the construction of the Basel-Olten railway line in the 1850s, the little Jura town of Waldenburg, situated on the Basel-Geneva trade route, was forced to fight the unemployment and poverty in its population. In 1853, the borough decided to introduce the watch and clock making industry and founded the “Société d’Horlogerie à Waldenburg”(Waldenburg clock and watch making company).

But the enterprise didn’t flourish until it was privatised and taken over by the young merchant Gédéon Thommen in 1859. Manufacturing and assembly methods were fundamentally improved and a particular importance was attached to the production of quality watches.

The company, managed under the name of “Gédéon Thommen –watch makers”, originally gave its watches the brand mark “G.T.”. The “système à pièces interchangeables”(interchangeable components system), which consisted in the interchangeability of individual watch components, was groundbreaking, and made it possible to transfer to series production. An invention protected by a “Remontoir patent” led to the simplification of the spring winding device and hand adjustment.

While 4 000 watches were produced in 1870, an output of 13000 watches was reached in

1890. G. Thommen was becoming less and less dependent on suppliers, as the aspiring company could produce movement blanks in its own workshops. From 1875 the company was not only making cylinder watches – they were also producing lever pocket watches. An invention patented in 1885, and which is still amazing today, was the G.T. “Springeruhr” with a very modern looking mechanical digital display.

G. Thommens’ far-sightedness and capacity for work were no secret to the public, to whom he devoted himself in many ways. He was co-founder of the “Waldenburger Bezirksblatts” (Waldburg local newspaper) and played an eminent part in the founding of the Waldenburg railway, which was opened in 1880 as the smallest narrow-gauge railway in Europe operated by steam and brought traffic to the Waldenburg valley. He was a member of the national assembly for 26 years. The education system was a particular matter of his concern.

After the death of the industry pioneer G. Thommen, his son Alphonse founded the company Thommens Uhrenfabriken AG in 1905. The REVUE watches produced with their own production machines according to modern methods met with general approval among experts. The increasing demand for wristwatches was based on the product’s outstanding quality and the opening up of new markets. Subsidiaries were opened in Gelterkinden and Langenbruck and another production facility was built in Waldenburg.

The currency breakdown in many countries, the severe economic crisis of the 1930s and the “templating”, i.e. the mass exportation of watch components, which was damaging to the prestige of Swiss watches, also caused the Waldenburg watch manufacturer a lot of trouble. The Thommens Uhrenfabriken AG research and development department surprised the industry experts more than once with innovations, which marked their epoch. To mention just a few: the self-compensating Nivarox balance spring, the timing machine for watch timing and the REVUE-SPORT wristwatches meeting the toughest demands for the first time.

In the 1980s, the company’s management decided to strengthen the link with “THOMMEN” navigation instruments for aviation and to rename the watch brand “REVUE THOMMEN”. Revue Thommen, supplier of precision instruments for the aviation industry since 1936 is indeed the most legitimate manufacturer of pilot watches. Their Airspeed and Streamline models in the upper middle market and the elegant creations Wallstreet and Open Heart attracted a lot of interest.

The Revue Thommen “Cricket” wristwatch almost attained cult status. The table clocks, whose design was based on the “Thommen” on-board chronometers for civil and military aircraft, complete the Revue Thommen range.

Until 1961 about a hundred different G.T. calibres were developed and produced. From 1961 onwards, further calibres were added, and were identified by initials. The initials from the beginning of the alphabet were for small watch movements, and the initials from the end of the alphabet were reserved for the larger watch movements. For example, the ladies calibre K12 corresponds to the size 8 3/4”’, the T-range to 11 1/2”’ and the calibre S to 13”’. These calibres are all produced today with the G.T. marking